Category Archives: Cliche

“Hey buddy!” my dad called as I came into the kitchen. “How was the night?”

“Oh, you know…” I stalled.

A look of concern flashed across my father’s face. He licked his lips and leaned in closely.

“You okay? Is your grandmother-”

But it was too late.

“Jeff-REY!” The cry came from upstairs.

I’m convinced that my grandmother picked my name by screaming all of the candidates at the top of her lungs, and seeing which seemed most natural. Try it- scream “Jeffrey.” You can really slam that second syllable.

Gary Pelton hadn’t seen his son in 6 years and hadn’t thought of him in several hours when he went to check the mail and have a smoke. His eyes were hard and his jaw was always clenched. He stepped out the door slowly and stood on the front step, fumbling in his breast pocket for his pack of cigarettes. Pulling one out, he found the Bic lighter in his jeans and carefully lit the slightly stale cigarette, cupping it against the wind. He inhaled deeply, then rummaged for the mailbox key and opened the small door, mail spilling out onto the steps. Cursing softly, he gathered up all the mail, briefly noticing a small, yellow envelope amongst the catalogs and spam. He trudged back inside.

Placing the mail on the dining room table, Gary fished out the yellow envelope and quickly opened it with his thumb. Unfolding it, he began to sit, but froze when he saw the salutation:

The sun glinted off of the green X728 riding mower as it slowly emerged from the back of the semi-trailer. Rob Smith peered at the hard metal machine from down the block, and licked his lips. Turning, he regarded his own riding mower, an X534 with a fading paint job.

“Mike!” he yelled. His 17-year-old son jogged out of his garage.

“What’s up?”

“Do you know that kid who lives down the street, Jason Strong? Frank’s son?”

“Nah, he’s younger. He’s, like, 14, I think.”

“You ever think about hanging out with him? I think you guys would get along.”

Mike looked at him suspiciously.

“Is this one of your weird dick-measuring contests about landscaping? Jesus, Dad, he got a new lawnmower, give it a rest.”

He went back into the garage, shaking his head. Rob took one more longing gaze at the brand new John Deere down the street, then turned back to his hedging.

Gyasi had fought bravely for his people, and believed that it was now a time for rest. When he was small, he had labored in the fields for his father, and when he grew old enough he had labored in the jungles against the enemy. The battle had lasted for many years and would never end. Gyasi went to the home of his wife.

“Adowa, I have returned.”

“Is the fighting done?”

“The fighting will never be done. Let us make a child, and live a peaceful life.”

Gyasi returned to working in the fields, pouring out an offering to his father and the earth in the morning as the sun rose over the vast jungle. He heard stories through the trees of the victories and losses of the war. He kept working.

The man had been traveling for a long time, and the dirt that covered his skin had long since caked his open sores. The dull pain had been numbed by fatigue. The only indication that still remained of the 6-inch wound in his left leg was a curiously persistent itch. The man idly scratched, and his fingers came back bloody. He continued to walk.

The road he walked down bordered a small creek that had run dry in May and would not hold water until October. The fences on the side of the road seemed mismatched, and the grass that grew at the bases of the posts was brown and limp. The trees looked thirsty.

The man saw a farmhand pushing a loaded wheelbarrow up the road, and fell into a steady limp about 40 feet behind him. After about 20 more minutes of walking, the laborer turned off of the road towards a small, shabby farm. The man walked past the gap in the fence, then doubled back and squinted at the farmhand, now laboriously unloading his wheelbarrow into the yard. Pausing to pick a bug out of his teeth, the man slumped against the fence. He took a pipe out of his pocket and shoved it, empty, into his mouth.